Inside the book

The forty-three questions proceed from site selection (the author argues that Lage (aspect) is more decisive than climate) through soil preparation, planting, pruning, first and second hoeing, manuring, leaf management, pest control, and finally the harvest. The fold-out plate is of particular ampelographic interest. It opens with a model "Verzeichniß" (register) for vineyard record-keeping, with columns for section number, variety name, color, and observations on virtues and faults. Three varieties are entered as examples: Muskateller, green, producing the best wine but requiring a warm summer to ripen; Zirifandel, also green, very fruitful and frost-hardy, and therefore "verdienet daher vielen Vorzug" (deserving much preference); and Elbing, white and fruitful, but prone to rot in wet weather. The Appendix then expands into descriptions of more than thirty Bohemian grape cultivars, organized by berry shape - Langbeerige (oblong) and Rundbeerige (round) - and ranging from Weisser Muskateller and Weisse Zuckerweinbeere through Kleine Rieslinge to Corinthentrauben and the curious parsley-leaved Petersilientraube (Vitis laciniola). More significantly, the author proposes a systematic, inter-regional method for identifying grape varieties: each should be carefully described at harvest, and these descriptions exchanged between wine-growing regions so that local names and varieties might be compared and cross-identified.